Below is information on the "facts" about getting hired as a New Medical Transcriptionist after proper Training! We will not mislead you in any way and will tell you both the pros and cons of finding work starting out as a New MT! There are plenty of jobs for New MT's, and we will tell you the facts, and only the facts - no unrealistic promises of getting started as a New MT! Information on getting hired As a New Medical Transcriptionist.

You may have heard that it's impossible to get a job as a medical transcriptionist unless you have experience. Usually, the person telling you this is an experienced medical transcriptionist who never quite explains how she and tens of thousands of other medical transcriptionist managed to get their first jobs. The fact is that medical transcription services have to hire new Medical Transcriptionist, whether they want to or not.

The demand for medical transcription is growing at such a rate that there are not enough experienced Medical Transcriptionist to service the accounts, and this situation will intensify over the next few decades as baby-boomers age and demand increasing health care services. Transcription services that refuse to hire new Medical Transcriptionist are faced with two choices: they can turn down accounts, or they can pay a premium in both compensation and benefits in an effort to attract experienced Medical Transcriptionist from their current employers.

Therefore, what does it take to get your foot in the door? You need to have Proper Training, high accuracy and productivity, and familiarity with professional tools. In other words, there is no secret. There is a simple fact: if you have been tested to transcribe the Basic 4 at 250 lines per hour with 98% accuracy, and you know and use digital equipment, you'll have no trouble finding a transcription service that will generously give you a chance to prove yourself.

Don't be misled by claims of various training vendors. Few transcription services could not care less where you got your training. They only want to know that you can actively produce at professional levels, because they get paid on productivity, just like the Medical Transcriptionist's, they hire. As a result, why do so many help-wanted ads ask for experienced only?

One of the reasons is because when people that want to "work at home" that have "no experience" in certain careers, look for the words "no experience required" in job ads! Therefore; hundreds and even sometimes thousands of people will officially apply to "any" job ad that says "no exp" and do not bother to look at the clause of what the "no exp." is for. They will assume it is for a Data Entry, or Word Processing, job instead of reading that it actually says "no prior work experience needed" for Trained MT's! When this many people apply to these no exp. MT job ads it overwhelms the Doctor office, Hospitals, etc.

They do not have the staff to go through thousands of non-qualified resumes, letters to try to find the "New MT's" that do have the prior training with being New, but no prior work exp. It became easier for them to place the job openings for the NEW MT's with colleges, MT Training Schools, and programs that offer job placement assistance so that they can refer the resumes of the qualified trained Medical Transcriptionist.

This saves the Doctors from being overwhelmed with resumes of people looking for Data Entry, Word Processing, etc. and actually gets Real New MT Resumes instead! Another reason is because many people who apply for medical transcription jobs have not been adequately trained.

Even courses that provide sufficient training in terminology usually ignore training in professional tools and techniques /report formats. As one employer recently said, "Oh sure, they can recite the ten major body systems. Unfortunately, they can't transcribe more than 100 lines per hour." A "line" consists of 65 keystrokes, including characters and spaces, but not including formatting keystrokes, such as Tab or Return.

An idea of what that translates to in typing speed, a person who can type 54 words per minute would, in theory, produce 300 lines per hour. However, for a medical transcriptionist to produce 300 lines per hour, she must know her terminology and use professional tools, because medical typing is more complicated than business or personal typing. Furthermore, 54 words per minute are just barely adequate typing speed for a medical transcriptionist.

Again, the Doctors can depend on the places they place the job openings with to refer the qualified MT's that have had adequate training and can transcribe the number of lines required with the proper Accuracy as well. Understand that Job Placement Assistance means just that "assistance"! No company, school, or college can guarantee you a job, unless they are hiring you themselves!

There are too many variables indirectly involved in the hiring process. We cannot read the Dr's mind in which they will or will not hire! No one can! If they tell you otherwise then you need to be concerned about the honesty of the company you are considering to take your training through! Job Placement Assistance means that your resume is referred over to the Doctors Office, Hospital, etc. that has placed the job opening for the New MT.

It also may involve putting your resume online in an online resume database or private search area for the Dr's' to search through. Again, Job Placement Assistance does not mean you are placed "directly" into an MT job after training.

It can take an average of 1 - 3 months for most new MT's to get into their 1st MT job position. This varies depending on if you have any medical background such as Nurses that have much more medical background. Nurses, Medical Assistants, Etc .usually will be able to get into an MT position much faster after proper Transcription Training on account of their background. Do not walk - RUN - from any training vendor who tells you 35 words per minute are adequate .

This is absolutely untrue! You will have trouble getting a job if you can't produce a minimum of 60 words per minute, and employers routinely expect 70+ words per minute. However, accuracy is even more important than how fast you type. How fast you type can determine your average pay, however low accuracy can cost you the job position. Most companies would like to see 98% accuracy in your transcription work.

As a professional medical transcriptionist, the keyboard is one of your primary tools, and professionals are expected to demonstrate expertise with their tools. Students that may need improvement on their typing speed and accuracy can gain the skills they need with inexpensive software programs designed to teach typing skills.

There are many excellent programs available for $25 or less that can be used to increase typing skills while the student is studying medical transcription. No student should allow slow typing speed to derail their career.

Anyone who is not suffering a physical disability can learn to type 70+ words per minute. It hasn't been that long since secretaries were expected to type at least 72 words per minute on manual typewriters! In a summary, the only secret to breaking into medical transcription is competency.

If you hear someone say they took medical transcription training but no one was willing to hire them without experience, ask them to explain to you what a hematocrit is and tell you its normal values, ask them how fast they transcribe the Basic 4 and at what accuracy level, ask them if they own a digital transcriber. Somewhere among the answers, you'll get a blank stare or a response that will clarify the real reason they can't get a job.


As a professional medical transcriptionist, you must know your terminology, know and use professional tools, and possess adequate keyboarding skills. Why should any transcription service, or student, expect less?

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